The World According To Chris Brewer

I shot a few photos of Cocoa. More to come.

Check out the little guy here.

Tonight I revamped the framework for my photo gallery. You can check out a treasure trove of old photos I shot using the Photos link above. Enjoy them all, I will upload some new ones soon.

Before I go to bed, let me share a link with you. Check out Baghdad ER, the HBO documentary of the 86th Combat Support Hospital (the 10th CSH was there when I was deployed to the Green Zone) saving lives at Ibn Sina Hospital. If you’ve got 64 minutes to spare, watch the video. For me, I can’t stomach watching it now, but I somehow was able to when I was over there shooting holiday greetings and saw victims of a mass casualty come in. Ugh.

I’m off to finish reading “Thr3e” by Ted Dekker.

A lot of Christians seem to have a mentality that you have to be a Republican to be a Christian. I just don’t get it.

Yes as Christians we are supposed to honor the Bible and stand for what is morally right, but more and more I get the feeling that a lot of far-right wingers use God as a reason to advance their political agenda, whatever it may be. And that’s pure blasphemy.

Like when Mike Huckabee basically said he was God’s candidate for President. Did God specifically speak to him and tell him He wanted Huck in office? Well, the way it’s going now it looks like “God’s candidate” has no shot.

Having lived in Portland, Oregon I am used to seeing militant far-left fringe supporters protest repeatedly in the streets of Portland, and create all sorts of chaos. And I honestly believe that as boorish as those guys behave, I think far-right Christians who use the name of God to forward their own cause are far more dangerous.

As they would have said in 1991, can I get a witness?

This is a topic I will be heavily discussing on my next podcast in a segment called Political Roundtable with a couple other guests, so make sure you stay tuned for it.

New on the blogroll today:

Jonathan Hash, a good friend of mine from New Horizons Church back in Washougal, WA, has started a blog of his own entitled Marching Onward. Check it out and tell him I sent you.

The official Podcast page for Here’s What’s Brewin’ is now up. Check out the current and back issues there (of course when I get to making more podcasts).

Lee Hoover, a fellow AF broadcaster, is deployed to Afghanistan. Show him your support by visiting his blog and praying for his safety.

I’m excited and proud to bring to you the first transmission of my brand new podcast, entitled Here’s What’s Brewin’.

Here’s What’s Brewin’ will be the official audio companion of this website, and will serve as a forum for constructive dialogue, deep and not so deep thoughts, and for people to simply share their hearts and stories. In the future I will have the capability to take the podcast on the road as well to conduct one-on-one unscripted interviews.

If you would like to be a guest on the podcast, have some suggestions or would like to donate some time to creating some interesting intros and taglines for the show, please shoot me an email at chris -at- chris-brewer.com. I’d love to hear from you.

Spread the word about the podcast, this is one project I plan to see through to its end. I would like to thank Jason for helping me out with the kickin’ intro.

Without further adieu, here’s the ‘cast! Enjoy and remember, I love your feedback. I print it all off and use each paper as bedsheets because it’s so cold. Your feedback keeps me warm inside and out.

 

 Here's What's Brewin' - Transmission 1 [6:06m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (47)

Tonight I began working on a new track. After a couple months of having tried to start projects for a potential album in the future, I finally got creative and began creating a track tonight. I don’t know what the name of it is yet but the working title of it is “Three O’Clock, Two Steps, One Chance.” It’ll be a mellow house groove and I just might throw a sample of it on the website for you tomorrow.

I think I’m going to go to the gym tomorrow and play basketball to get some excess energy out of my system. Last time I was there I had a nifty streak of nine three-pointers in a row until some punk kid decided to come up to my hoop and started doing layup drills while there were three other hoops open. I wanted to pull a Billy Quan on him.

Bedtime. The dog’s asleep so I better take advantage of this before he starts howling again.

Say hello to Cocoa the Chocolate Lab. Born eight weeks ago, and picked up today. I think the name is kinda bland but it’s Mom’s dog and oh well. Still a neat little dude.

He’s a great little guy, I gotta tell ya. He ran about the yard (on a leash of course) under my guidance for about 15 minutes and chased the leaves that blew around.

He still hasn’t peed yet. :S

In our society today, we are surrounded by noise. Automobiles, machinery, you name it. It could even be something as simple as your washing machine humming away or something as annoying as your neighbor’s dog barking.

Wouldn’t it be awesome to take even just a couple minutes a day, relax, and listen to nothing for just a short period of time?

Silence is powerful. For example, during a winter storm, the atmosphere grows silent, creating an auditory as well as visual scene of beauty and majesty.

Silence can also be deafening. I remember seeing an anti-war protest in Washington, D.C. where twenty people stood silently outside the Vietnam Memorial and held posters with pictures of their loved ones. In the silence, the message the protestors wanted to convey to the public spoke loudly and clearly without having to be heard.

In the quiet, we can reflect on who we are, where we’ve been, what we have yet to do.

From a spiritual perspective, Psalms 46:10 gives us the clear admonition to be still and know that God is, well, God. How can we fully fathom God’s power, peace and presence if we don’t take some time and simply meditate on God’s Word and the fact that He is in control of our lives?

We get so stuck in daily routines and we sometimes neglect just to sit back and embrace silence. It’s in the silence that God speaks to us the most, because it’s when He has our full attention. That’s when it becomes deafening, because you’ve just heard the omnipotent Creator speak.

Try it today — get away from everything for a time, and enjoy the silence.

An issue with my hosting company may render my site unavailable after midnight tonight. I am working on a fix for the problem and I hope we won’t be down for long tomorrow. Those of you who have my blog on your linkroll, please keep it there, even though we can expect a temporary outage of a few hours tomorrow.

Gracias.

Republic, Missouri. Population 8,000. Seven miles southwest of Springfield. My adopted hometown for the time being. Nice little place.

Only one thing though — I have never seen so many dogs roaming free on public streets. In fact I don’t think I’ve seen one dog on a leash the entire time I’ve been here in Republic.

At first it didn’t bother me, but when I watched the neighbor’s dog come traipsing onto my family’s lawn a couple months ago, look right at me, squat, drop a massive deuce then run away. To which I had three options: (1) take the poo, put it in a sack, light it on fire and throw it on the neighbor’s porch; (2) take the poo and just throw it in their yard; or (3) politely ask the neighbors to keep their dog out of our yard.

Unfortunately at the time I didn’t choose any of those. Number 1 sounded fun, number 2 would have been mildly amusing and number 3 would have got something done but it would have been boring.

So now let’s talk about the neighbors across the way. These guys have a dog too. Looks like it’s been rescued — it’s the canine equivalent to the Vietnam vet you see holding a sign and panning for money off the exit ramp. Seriously. This thing looks like it’s been through the wringer a few times (it only has three legs). Great gesture by the neighbors to take him in, but not so great what liberties the dog has taken with his newfound family.

This guy will sit out in the yard adjacent to ours, walk around, sit for awhile and just start barking. Arf arf arf woooooooooooooooooooo arf arf arf woooooooo. Yes, dogs will be dogs, but after hearing it early in the morning and late at night, you kinda want to do something about it. Dude just sits there and yelps, and then it creates a chain reaction in the neighborhood of dogs barking at each other like the barking chain in 101 Dalmatians. Poor guy even sits out there in the rain and cold.

I love animals and all, and yes like I said dogs will be dogs, but aren’t there any laws in Republic to hold owners responsible for their furry friends? I haven’t found anything, which is kinda weird. Every other town I have lived in has a leash law, or a noise ordinance law that extends to pets. I haven’t been able to find any such thing for Republic.

Maybe there is no law because city leaders want their residents to prove themselves responsible. But if people can’t be good owners to their pets and keep them quiet and off others’ property, there is only one solution.